


No Second Chance for a First Impression

by laughter_now



Series: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder-'verse [3]
Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Humour, M/M, Meeting the Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughter_now/pseuds/laughter_now
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim knows that leaving a good first impression is very important. Especially now, when he's meeting Bones' mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Second Chance for a First Impression

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything associated with the Star Trek franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> This was written in answr to a prompt at the buckleup_meme.  
> It's part of the "Absence makes the Heart grow fonder"-'verse, though it can be read as a complete standalone. Within the 'verse, it takes place before the main storyline of "Absence..."  
> First posted to my lj-journal on June 11th, 2010.

**_No Second Chance For a First Impression_**  
  
  
"Jim, stop bouncing your damn leg."  
  
Jim bit his lip but did as he was asked, forcing his foot down flat in the foot space of the rented hovercar. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked out the window at the landscape passing by, and he couldn't help the way the nervous feeling in his gut increase.  
  
Of course Bones could easily treat this like it was no big deal, but to Jim it was. They were on their way to spend a week with Bones' mother, and if that wasn't a big deal then Jim didn't know what was.  
  
It was…he had never met anyone's parents before. Not like this. And most certainly nobody had ever taken him to their parents' home before. This was important. And that Bones acted like it was nothing but an ordinary trip was not helping. It was Bones' mom, for crying out loud. Jim knew that the two of them were close, especially since the death of Bones' father. He had never seen them interact in person, but he knew her from a number of video calls he had been around for, and he had seen the care packages she had sent Bones while they had still been at the Academy.  
  
It was the kind of relationship Jim had absolutely no precedent for. His own mother and he interacted vastly different than that. There were a lot of setbacks in Bones' relationship with his mother, too, but still it seemed to be lacking the…distance, for a lack of better word, that Jim felt as a large part of his own relationship with his mother. If Winona wouldn't agree with Jim's choice of partner, it would sting, but it wouldn't have an impact on the choice Jim made. But if Bones' mother didn't like him, if they got off on the wrong foot or if she saw through his façade and found him lacking…  
  
He really had to do his best, no matter if Bones said that he was worrying completely unnecessarily. There was no second chance for a first impression, and Jim was planning on making that first impression count.  
  
"Stop the car."  
  
Bones turned his head, but even though he slowed somewhat, he didn't stop.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Stop the car, Bones!"  
  
There must have been a note of urgency in his voice, because Bones immediately drove the hovercar to the side of the road and stopped.  
  
"What is it, Jim?"  
  
But Jim was already out of the car, heading into the field they been driving past. He was distantly aware that Bones probably thought he was feeling nauseous, or that something was wrong, but there'd be time for explanations later. This was important, because no matter what Bones said, meeting someone's mother for the first time was a big thing.  
  
"Damn it, Jim! Would you tell me what's going on?"  
  
Jim had already pulled the small switchblade he usually carried around out of the pocket of his jeans and was bending down to cut through the first stem. He heard steps behind him, hurried at first but slowing down as they approached him.  
  
"Seriously?" Bones had that tone of voice that spoke volumes about his opinion on Jim's mental state. "Flowers? I told you there's no need for that."  
  
Jim shook his head resolutely as he picked out the next flower and cut through the stem.  
  
"Yeah, you did, and I let you talk me into not getting your Mom any, and that was a mistake. You take me home to meet your Mom, I'm damn well going to get her some flowers. It's the polite thing to do, Bones."  
  
Bones stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, one eyebrow raised.  
  
"I've known that woman for thirty-five years now…"  
  
"And I'm about to get to know her. And I really don't want for her to forever think of me as the guy who didn't bring her any flowers when he showed up on her doorstep for the first time." He looked up at Bones after he said those words, desperately willing the other man to understand how important this was to him. "Maybe you don't think it's necessary, Bones. Maybe it isn't, but it's something I want to do. And if I show up with empty hands later on, I'm going to feel uncomfortable about this, and I really don't want to start it off on the wrong foot because it's your Mom, and that you take me to meet her is kind of a big deal for me."  
  
The look on Bones' face shifted from mildly annoyed to fondly indulgent somewhere in the middle of Jim's rant, and he shook his head with a small sigh.  
  
"All right, go get your flowers. But if her first impression of you is that you were late, it's not going to be my fault. And if you get an allergic reaction from the pollen, don't expect any pity from me when your throat swells up."  
  
Jim rolled his eyes because while the words might be harsh, the tone of Bones' voice wasn't. So Bones got it, or at least he realized how damn nervous Jim was about this whole meeting, no matter how often he had told him that it was completely unnecessary. He even agreed to hold the flowers Jim had already cut when it became difficult to manage holding the flowers and cutting new ones at the same time, and only put an end to their botanic excursion when he started having difficulties holding the big bouquet.  
  
If he noticed the sweet smell of the pollen from the backseat for the remaining drive, or the fact that Jim sneezed surreptitiously a couple of times, he didn't mention it.  
  
He did, however, admonish Jim to stop bouncing his damn leg another three or four times. When they finally pulled into the driveway of a house, Jim's heart was beating fast in his throat and it was a tough job not to start biting on his fingernails to quell the rising feeling of dread. This was…he couldn't do this. He had been sitting in the hovercar for over an hour, his clothes were wrinkled, and in the humid Georgian air he could feel the sweat start to pop up on his forehead. What was Bones' mother going to think of him when she saw him like that?  
  
"You know, if my mother wanted something to decorate her driveway, I'm sure she could have come up with something other than you sitting in the car like a statue."  
The car door opened, and Jim hadn't even noticed that Bones was already out of the car and standing on the passenger side, waiting for Jim to get out.  
"Now come on. I bet you good money my mother is watching us from the window, and if I have to drag you out of the car, that's definitely not going to leave a good impression."  
  
Jim took a last deep breath to steel himself for what was coming, then he unfolded himself from his seat and got out of the car. In a futile gesture, he smoothed down his wrinkled shirt, then opened the back door of the car and got out the flowers. Now that he looked at it, the bouquet really looked too huge, yet at the same time completely unimpressive. It were no roses, or orchids, or whatever else someone was supposed to get when they met the mother of the man they loved for the first time. It were just ordinary flowers, the likes of which had grown on the edges of all the fields they had driven by for the past hour.  
  
Completely unimpressive.  
  
What if that was the impression Bones' mother was going to have of _him_ as well?  
  
He swallowed hard as his fingers tightened reflexively around the stems of the flowers in his hand.  
  
He couldn't do this.  
  
Bones' hand was a warm weight against his back, broad palm settling reassuringly between his shoulder blades. Jim desperately needed the feeling of something grounding him, and he should have known that Bones always would, without the need to ask. He still didn't think he could go through this, didn't think it could end in anything but a complete and utter disaster, but he didn't have any other choice now.  
  
"Come on, Jim. Let's get inside. I'm sure she's waiting already."  
  
Jim nodded, numbly setting one foot in front of the other as they approached the house. He knew it wasn't the house Bones had grown up in. A little more than a year after the death of her husband, Eleanor McCoy had moved into a slightly smaller house, one that – as Bones had told the story – wasn't quite as big and empty around her, and not as filled with memories.  
  
It was a nice house as far as Jim was one to judge those, two stories high and traditionally built with a shingled roof and painted shutters. It would have looked out of place in most modern cities, but here in this suburb of Atlanta it simply added to the impression that the place was stuck in time.  
  
Jim had grown up in a place like this. But where the farmhouse in Riverside had been stuck in the past for a lack of technical upkeep, the houses here gave the impression that it was a deliberate look, one that only hid the comforts of modern life on the inside. Somehow, Jim had the impression that they weren't going to have to worry about issues with the plumbing, faulty replicators or an erratic energy supply here.  
  
With a gentle pressure against his back, Bones led Jim up the front porch – a damn _front porch_ , like something right out of an old holo-vid – and towards the door. He didn't have to knock. The moment they set foot on the porch, the door opened, as if Bones' mother was unwilling to force her own son to knock or ring the bell. And for a moment, everything was a blur.  
  
"Len!"  
  
Jim blinked, and in that fragment of a moment Bones' presence was gone from behind him, and he was pulled through the doorway and into the house. Jim didn't see Eleanor, though, not really. All he saw was a woman who was maybe a head smaller than his lover, her dark hair streaked with grey, who had engulfed Bones in the tightest embrace Jim had ever seen.  
  
Bones wasn't a hugger. Jim knew from personal experience that while every touch that man bestowed and accepted held a meaning, he was not someone who allowed many public displays of affection. And in a neighborhood like this one, it couldn't get more public than receiving the mother of all hugs in plain sight, right in the doorway of the house. But right now, Bones was embracing his mother as if his life depended on it. Even more astonishingly, he allowed himself to be held, because despite the difference in height, it was obvious who was holding whom in that embrace.  
  
Not really knowing what to do with himself, Jim remained where he was, nervously shifting from one foot to the other. Eleanor eventually released Bones, thought the hesitance was obvious and she kept his face held in her hands for a few seconds longer as if she was trying to get a good look at him. It was an intimate moment, and Jim felt a little out of place being so close to it, witnessing it.  
  
Eleanor looked just the way Jim remembered her from pictures and those few video calls he had been present for. Maybe there was a bit more grey in her hair, some more lines around her eyes than he had been able to make out on the video screen, and for some reason Jim had imagined her a little bit taller than she was. But there was just something about her, something about her posture, the way she held herself, that undoubtedly marked her relation to Bones, even at first glance, though Jim would be hard-pressed to put a finger to what it was.  
  
"You look good, Len."  
  
Bones smiled then, one of those smiles that were rare, but so absolutely genuine that they made Jim feel slightly breathless.  
  
"So do you, Ma."  
  
She waved him off, finally breaking her hold on his face and taking a step back. Her eyes turned towards Jim's then, as did Bones', and Jim suddenly felt horribly out of place, an intruder who had no business being here. His skin was itching and his feet wanted to move, wanted to _run_ away from here as far and as fast as he could.  
  
Coming here had been a mistake. He wasn't ready for this, and it was going to end up in a mess. Jim was good at leaving messes wherever he went.  
  
Bones seemed to realize that something was wrong, or maybe the southerner in him was simply repelled at the idea that he had all but forgotten about Jim while he had greeted his mother. Whatever the reason, he took a step towards Jim, reached for his arm and pulled him over the threshold.  
  
"Ma, I want you to meet Jim."  
  
Bones kept his hand wrapped loosely around Jim's wrist, and the other one settled on Jim's shoulder as he stood behind him and presented him to his mother as if it was no big deal. But maybe he kept his hand holding on to Jim's arm because he could sense Jim's flight instinct kick in full force and wanted him to stop from running. Apparently, Bones still thought that this was going to be easy if Jim only got over himself.  
  
It was anything but.  
  
Jim felt his throat close up as he thought what a picture he must make for Eleanor – standing there, his clothes rumpled and wrinkled from the drive, pale and nervous, with Bones holding his wrist tightly as if to keep him from bolting. And above all, he couldn't imagine how ridiculous that oversized bouquet of field flowers had to look in his arms. Bones had been right; it had been a stupid idea. A huge bunch of randomly cut flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes, probably crawling with insects and plant lice – that was going to leave an impression for sure. The first flowers were already hanging their heads from the lack of water, and Jim felt a flush rise to his cheeks.  
  
Stupid.  
  
Unimpressive.  
  
 _Insufficient._  
  
How the hell was that ridiculous bouquet going to be able to say that this was important to Jim, that he wanted to meet Eleanor to tell her – no, _show_ her – that he loved her son more than he had ever dared to love anyone else in his life, and that he was going to give everything he had to make sure Bones never regretted this.  
  
He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.  
  
And just as he thought that it would be best if the ground opened up now and swallowed him whole, Eleanor took a step towards him, a smile lifting up the corners of her mouth and wrinkling the corners of her deep brown eyes.  
  
"Jim, it's so good to finally meet you." As if she could sense that Jim was completely unable to speak, she turned her eyes towards the flowers Jim held awkwardly in his hands. "Are those for me?"  
  
Jim wanted nothing more than to hide the bouquet behind his back. Or turn back the time ten minutes and leave them in the car to wilt and rot until he could throw them out surreptitiously. But it was too late for that now, and he could only stand and nod dumbly as Eleanor took yet another step towards him and reached for the flowers in his arms. Her hand was warm and dry as she unclenched his fingers from around the stems, and for some reason Jim couldn't explain there was a warm smile on her face as she took the flowers out of his arms.  
  
"Thank you so much, Jim!" And there was no pretence in her voice, no false cheerfulness, and Jim simply didn't understand why her smile at him hadn't turned into laughter already.  
  
"Len, be a dear and get vase from the kitchen. Or maybe two," she added with a small chuckle, and Jim was still completely befuddled and unable to figure out what to think about all this as Bones took the flowers out of his mother's hands and turned to walk down the corridor. What did register was that he was leaving Jim _alone_ with his mother, and his heart started beating double time in his chest.  
  
With the flowers gone, he no longer quite knew what to do with his hands, let alone where to look or what to do or say. Eleanor just regarded him for a second or two longer, until Bones had gone and vanished in the kitchen, then she shook her head with a smile.  
  
"Let me guess – my dearest son convinced you that you didn't have to bring me any flowers, and somewhere along the drive here you thought better of it. Probably right around the McAllister fields, if the poppies are anything to judge by."  
  
Her tone was dry, but there was warmth to her voice and a small sense of laughter in her words, and Jim couldn't help it – a laugh escaped his lips and he felt his whole body sag a little in on himself as tense muscles relaxed. "Something like that, yes."  
  
Eleanor laughed at that, a loud and carefree laugh that reminded Jim almost painfully of the rare times that Bones allowed himself to laugh that way. The resemblance between them wasn't that obvious at first glance, but right now it was undoubtedly there.  
  
"Let me tell you something, Jim." She leaned closer towards him and dropped her voice a little. "Len might be a genius about all things to do with medicine, but he's not exactly the number one authority on human interaction. You'd have been welcome here in any way and shape, of course. But the rule of thumb is that flowers go a long way with a woman."  
  
She winked conspiratorially, and suddenly it was so easy to smile back at her.  
  
"Thank you, Mrs.…"  
  
"Eleanor," she immediately interrupted him. "It's Eleanor. Let's not even get started with this whole _Mrs. McCoy_ business."  
  
"Thanks, Eleanor."  
  
Bones' mother cocked her head to the side and watched Jim for a few moments, as if taking him in for the first time.  
  
"It's good to finally meet you in person, Jim."  
  
"Likewise."  
  
It was true, Jim realized. It felt good to finally get to know the woman who was such an important part of Bones' life. And Eleanor was making it easier on him than he had thought possible. Maybe Bones had been right after all, and this wasn't going to end in disaster. Just maybe, this once, Jim wasn't going to screw it all up.  
  
The smile on Eleanor's face faltered a little and she opened her arms.  
  
"Can I…?"  
  
It wasn't even much of a choice. Jim's feet moved without thinking, and before he knew it a surprisingly strong pair of arms wrapped around him. Eleanor reached barely over his chin, but she held him tightly against herself for a long moment. It was different than the hugging Jim was used to from his own family, casual, short and uninvolved embraces that were more perfunctory than heartfelt. This embrace was warm and firm, and though Jim wasn't used to it, he felt that he didn't want it to stop. Without thought, he brought up his own arms and hugged Eleanor back just as fiercely.  
  
It didn't last long, just a few moments, but when Eleanor withdrew and held him at arm's length, Jim knew that the smile on his face was mirroring Eleanor's own.  
  
"It's good to finally meet you," she repeated. "After so long, it was about time the two of you finally came by for a visit."  
  
"Shore leave is a rarity these days, apparently."  
  
She smiled and gave Jim's arms a little squeeze before she released him. "Well, now you're here. Come on, Len can show you around. The two of you can put your stuff into the guest room, and lunch should be ready soon."  
  
Just then Bones came out of a room down the hall which Jim suspected was the kitchen. He was carrying two large vases with Jim's flowers, and with a smile Jim noticed that the other man had taken the time to rearrange the flowers by colors and size. He had no idea if Bones had done so to make the best out of the random bouquet, or simply to give Eleanor and Jim some time, but he appreciated the gesture either way.  
  
Putting one of the vases down on the low table in the hallway, Bones turned towards his mother.  
  
"Are you expecting company for lunch?"  
  
"Of course not. Why ever would you ask that?"  
  
Bones raised an eyebrow. "Because you have enough food cooking in there to feed a small army, Ma."  
  
Eleanor playfully swatted the back of Bones' head and took the second vase out of her son's hand. "We'll see if you still complain once it's all on the table. Why don't you get your things and show Jim around? I'll just put these in the living room and then I'll see to lunch."  
  
She ran her hand down Leonard's arm as she passed him. It was just a small gesture, something he normally wouldn't have paid much mind to, but seeing it made a lump form in Jim's throat. He was a bit startled when Bones put a hand on his arm.  
  
"Come on, lets get our stuff upstairs. Trust me, you don't want to keep my mother waiting when she has food prepared."  
  
The front door was still open, and they quickly retrieved their bags from the car before Bones led Jim upstairs. Since Bones had long since moved out when Eleanor moved into this house, there was no old childhood bedroom for them to stay in. Bones seemed glad about that, but Jim had to admit that he would be curious to see a side of the man he loved he hadn't previously been able to glimpse. As it was, they were staying in the guest bedroom two doors down from the master bedroom.  
  
Their bags were stowed away quickly, and once he had changed into a fresh shirt, Jim took a moment to just stand and breathe the room around him. He might not have grown up here, but this was Bones' home, the place where his closest relative lived, and Jim was desperately trying to get a feel for it.  
  
The first step had been made. Meeting Bones' mother had been easier than he had imagined it to be. A lot easier than he had feared it to be. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that the other shoe was only waiting to drop.  
  
For the second time in juts a few minutes, Bones' touch startled him.  
  
"Are you all right, Jim?"  
  
He turned around, surprised to see that Bones was looking at him with an almost worried expression on his face. And then suddenly he realized that maybe Bones had done a little pretending of his own this whole time. Maybe Bones had been worried about this meeting after all, worried that it might go wrong, that Jim might not like his mother, or the other way around. Bones had been worried, and that was something Jim needed to wrap his mind around.  
  
He tried to smile and stepped closer, close enough for Bones to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him flush against his side.  
  
"I'm good. Sorry if I drove you crazy on the way here. I guess I was a little more nervous than I admitted."  
  
Bones smiled, his lips brushing against Jim's in a tender kiss. "And I'm sorry about the flowers. You were right, she loves them."  
  
Jim kissed Bones again, just another chaste press of lips against lips, but it helped quell what remained of his anxiety about the rest of the day.  
  
"Let's go down for lunch," Bones said, even though he drew Jim yet another bit closer as he did so. "I think I saw a Peach Cobbler in the kitchen and trust me, you wouldn't want to miss Ma's Peach Cobbler for anything."  
  
Jim wasn't too sure that his stomach was settled enough to like the idea of food yet, but he allowed Bones to pull him out of the room and down the stairs again. He was curious to see more of Eleanor and the way she interacted with Bones. There was an almost perpetual smile on his lover's face ever since they had come here, and he really didn't want to miss a second of it.  
  
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
  
Lunch was…relaxed. Surprisingly so. For one, Bones was right and his mother was a great cook. The house was climate-controlled like all modern buildings, so it didn't feel like a perversion to eat an opulent lunch while outside, the heat was practically smoldering. But the reason why Jim felt so relaxed all the way during lunch, or even the rest of the day really, was that Eleanor didn't give him a chance to fall back into his earlier nervousness.  
  
She acted…well, a lot as if this was normal. As if Bones and Jim dropped by for a visit regularly, and as if she had known Jim for a long time already, and not just from news reports and the few words they had exchanged during some pervious video calls. She reveled in all the stories Bones was telling from Enterprise, even though she had undoubtedly heard most of them before – either on the newsfeed, or from Bones directly after they happened. But she listened raptly, careful not to involve Jim directly in the conversation until she was sure that he was feeling comfortable enough to do so.  
  
And she was a mean storyteller herself.  
  
Despite the fact that Bones hadn't spent his childhood in this house, Eleanor had put up plenty of memorabilia when she moved in here. There were a large number of pictures, snapshots that Jim eyed curiously because he hadn't seen many images of Bones from before they met. In her living room, Eleanor was surrounded by snapshots from seemingly every important event in her son's life – his graduation from med school, his prom night (and boy, was Jim going to have fun with _that_ one), soccer tourneys, science fairs at school, there was even a couple of images of a chubby-cheeked baby-Bones that Jim couldn't stop staring at.  
  
Seeing that the pictures had drawn Jim's interest, Eleanor started regaling him with the stories to go along with the images, much to Bones' chagrin and despite his loud protests. But the protests were short-lived and Jim couldn't help the feeling that it was a deliberate act on his lover's part. Hearing how ten year-old Leonard McCoy's science fair project hard nearly burned down half the school definitely helped break the ice. Even if Bones claimed that his mother was exaggerating, Eleanor had a picture of his singed eyebrows to prove otherwise.  
  
What astonished Jim most was the transformation Bones seemed to go through since their arrival. It wasn't as if he had become a completely different person in the presence of his mother, but it was as if being here had taken away a lot of the underlying tension that was normally there. And it was obvious from every interaction that Bones and Eleanor were close, despite the fact that they rarely saw each other. That realization was a little painful, because the physical distance had always been one of the ways Jim justified the emotional distance to his own mother.  
  
Apparently, one didn't necessarily call for the other. But Jim wasn't going to dwell on that now, when it was so much easier to just let himself fall into the comfort of it all, of being here with Bones and his mother, as if he had never spent shore leave any other way. He still wasn't sure that it could truly be that easy to meet his lover's mother, but he wasn't going to question it. Maybe for once in his life something that was important to him could go smoothly.  
  
The day passed without Jim really realizing how it did. They talked for hours though it didn't feel that long at all, Bones showed him around town and they had a late dinner. Once they retired for the night, Jim was ready, maybe for the first time since they had arrived here, to admit that he was at ease with this. It felt comfortable being her with Bones, like this.  
  
Bones put an arm across his waist and pulled him closer on the bed. He shifted them until he was pressed up against Jim's back, his face pressed against the back of Jim's neck and his hand splayed across his stomach.  
  
"Are you okay?" He asked, his thumb drawing lazy circles across Jim's skin.  
  
"Yeah." Before this visit, Jim had worried about how he was going to try and convince Bones that he was fine even if this whole meeting went horribly wrong. Now he had to realize that he didn't even have to pretend. He still wasn't convinced that it could possibly be this easy, but right now it sure felt like it. "Yeah, I'm good."  
  
"She likes you, you know?"  
  
Jim felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips.  
  
"I like her, too. Hard to believe she's your mother, though. Not a trace of grumpiness in sight."  
  
Bones chuckled, playfully nipping the tender skin on Jim's neck with his teeth. The small tease turned into a gentle caress as Bones started to soothe the small mark with his tongue. His hand started roaming over Jim's stomach, but even though every part of Jim wanted to continue this, he reached for Bones' hand and intertwined their fingers, stopping the movement.  
  
"Bones, your Mom is sleeping two rooms down the hall."  
  
Again, Bones chuckled, but settled behind Jim with another tender kiss against his neck. "She'll be at work tomorrow, though. It's shore leave after all. I want some time for just the two of us."  
  
They were going to make that time, Jim knew. And after the week with Bones' mother, there were still another three week of shore leave ahead of them. There was plenty of time.  
  
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
  
Jim had the feeling that somewhere along the way to Atlanta, he had taken a wrong step and ended up in a parallel universe. Normally, this wasn't him. He wasn't one to lay back leisurely and just enjoy himself, with nothing to worry about, no work to be done, nothing to occupy his mind with.  
  
Maybe it was the Georgia heat, or the fact that neither Bones nor his mother seemed to expect anything else from him, but during their stay with Bones' mother, it seemed easy to let go of everything else for a while.  
  
Eleanor was a history teacher at a high school in Atlanta, which left Jim and Bones plenty of time for themselves throughout the day. They spent their days hanging around the house, not caring about anything but food and rest, they made love lazily and leisurely, and Jim barely dared to think it, but he was content like this. He had never associated such a strong feeling with the thought of home, and family, but here with Bones and Eleanor that felt different.  
  
The thought scared him a little, though, and he pushed it away into the dark place in his brain where he buried all thoughts and feelings that he didn't quite know how to deal with. He was going to enjoy this visit. All thinking could wait until later.  
  
At least, that's what he thought.  
  
It was on the evening of the third day of their stay that Eleanor sent Bones on an errand. It wasn't something Jim thought about very much, after all mothers sent their kids on errands all the time. Well, at least Jim supposed they did. But not even five minutes after Bones had left in their rented hovercar Jim heard the front door open and Eleanor's soft steps as she came over towards the porch swing Jim had settled into with a book earlier.  
  
"Mind if I join you?"  
  
Jim put the book away and gestured to the empty space beside him.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Eleanor settled in the swing seat beside him and handed him a bottle of cold beer. "Don't think it escaped my notice that you have no taste for real Georgian sweet tea, Jim."  
  
Jim took the bottle with a smile. "In my defense, I really tried."  
  
For a few long moments, they sat there silently as the air grew darker and colder around them. And suddenly Jim knew that it was no accident that Eleanor had sent Bones off on that errand right now, or that she had sought him out right after he left. He had the sudden realization that this was the moment he had expected straight away, on the first day of their visit. That it hadn't happened then only meant that Eleanor had given herself a few days to get to know him before she passed judgment.  
  
Because that was the only possible reason for this scenario – judgment, in some form or other. Now that moment seemed to have come, and Jim felt horribly unprepared. He didn't even know what he could possibly say in his defense if Eleanor found him lacking.  
  
 _You're a nice guy, Jim, but you're not good for Len.  
  
Not good enough.  
  
You'll never be good enough._  
  
Oh, he doubted that she'd put it like that, but even hidden behind kind words and a Georgian lilt it would amount to the same. And how could he ever prove to the one person Bones cared about and listened to that even if he was never going to be enough, he was going to keep trying.  
  
He couldn't pinpoint why exactly, but Eleanor's judgment was important to him. Far more important than he had ever thought it could be.  
  
Jim felt his heart speed up in his chest and took a nervous sip of his beer. The pregnant pause could only mean that Eleanor had something important to say to him now that Bones wasn't around for a little while. But whatever he had expected to hear, it wasn't the words Eleanor said next.  
  
"I wanted to thank you, Jim."  
  
For a couple of seconds, Jim didn't know what to say.  
  
"Thank me? But…for what?"  
  
Eleanor took a sip of her tea, then put the glass down on the wooden boards beside the porch swing.  
  
"For Len. For what you did for him."  
  
Somehow, Jim had the feeling that he had missed a vital part of this conversation despite the fact that they were barely a few sentences in.  
  
"I'm sorry, Eleanor, I have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
She leaned back into the swing and gently moved it to and fro with the tip of her foot.  
  
"When Len joined Starfleet, he was in a bad place. And…well, he had nowhere to turn to. His marriage had fallen apart, and I…I guess I was getting so lost in my own grief that I didn't notice how much worse it all was for him."  
  
She looked up at him then, and despite the fading light there was no mistaking the intensity in her gaze.  
  
"Len told me that you know how David died. That you know what Len did for him. And…" She drew a deep breath, as if her next words required courage she wasn't sure she could come up with. "David talked to me about it, before he even asked Len. And I know that if I had said no, he wouldn't have ever asked this of our son. To this day, I don't know if what I wanted most was for the man I loved to stop suffering, or if I was thinking about myself too. There were times when it felt like agreeing to David's wish was the easiest way out for me, one where I took no part of the guilt. But when David was gone…"  
  
She stopped again, and Jim had to quell the urge to reach out for her. From everything he had glimpsed over the past couple of days, he had understood one thing clearly – even after the long years of their marriage, the feelings between Bones' parents had been very strong. Eleanor still wore her wedding ring, and sometimes, almost unconsciously, her gaze would stray towards one of the photographs of David that were placed around the house while she talked. There was still love there, the kind that didn't stop with death. And Jim had seen firsthand how hard the death of the man you loved could hit you. It was a pain Jim didn't even want to think about, and he could imagine that talking about it was anything but easy for Eleanor.  
  
"We don't need to talk about this, Eleanor."  
  
"It's okay." Her voice was a little shaky, but she nodded as if to convince herself. "There's something I want you to understand. After David…I hurt, when he was gone. Of course I did, but so much more than I had expected. And it was so easy to get lost in that, to focus on what I was going through that I completely ignored how much Len was hurting, too. I'm not proud of that. I'm not proud that I didn't see how much my own son suffered. I'm not proud that I wasn't there when his marriage fell apart over his own grief and guilt, and I'm not proud that at times I blamed him for what he did. And when we started to mend the bridges between us and he told me he had joined Starfleet, well, to be honest I didn't know what to think of it. I didn't think it was the right choice for him."  
  
Jim laughed silently. "Well, he did stand out amongst most other cadets, that much is true."  
  
That brought a smile to her face. "I can only imagine that he did. But I…I was worried that he had thrown himself into something that was wrong for him, just because he hadn't known where to turn to in his grief. I didn't believe it was the right choice for him for a long time. But as our contact became regular again, there wasn't one letter or call in which I didn't hear about you. No matter what we were talking about, whether it was something completely mundane or just the opposite – whatever it was, one way or another he always ended up talking about you. Back then I never imagined the two of you would fall in love, and I guess neither did you, but it was good to know that…well, that he had someone. Someone he could trust, someone he could fall back on. Someone who wouldn't hesitate to give him a solid kick when he needed it. You were important to him, right from the start, and I'm grateful that you were there when he needed it."  
  
Jim shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with the praise. He was no selfless Samaritan, and it was difficult for him to hear anybody talk as if he was. Bones had been his friend first before he had become so much more to him. And friends were there for each other.  
  
"It's always been give and take. Bones was there for me just as much as I was for him."  
  
Eleanor reached out and squeezed Jim's hand.  
  
"You _were_ there for him. That's a lot more than I can say about myself during that time, and I'm his mother. I'm grateful that you had each other."  
  
Jim swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat.  
  
"Me too," he said.  
  
She squeezed his hand again, and a smile stole across her face.  
  
"He really loves you, you know? It's obvious every time he looks at you."  
  
Jim knew. And he saw it, too. Not with every small look, but there were those moments when Bones got that expression on his face that made Jim want to fall in love with him all over again. Those were the moments when Jim could barely believe that he should be the cause of that.  
  
"I love him, too," Jim replied, trying to put as much conviction as he could into his voice. He wanted Eleanor to understand that this was the most important thing in his life to him. She smiled at him, though there was a little sadness there, too.  
  
"That's obvious, too. And you and this relationship, it's doing him a world of good. But Len, sometimes he doesn't believe that the good things in his life will last. That things will always end the same, no matter how many tries he gives them. He has a habit of making things more difficult for himself than they should be."  
  
Of course Jim knew that Bones had his hang-ups about relationships, and about the tragic ways they could end. Jim wasn't the only one who had his fair share of people leaving him, one way or another. Maybe it was one of the reason why they worked so well together, because they both knew how much they each needed for someone to be there, and stay there.  
  
"I'm not going to leave him."  
  
Eleanor just smiled at him again, though Jim thought he detected a hint of relief in it this time. There were headlights approaching further down the road, and despite the falling darkness Jim was sure that it was Bones returning from his errand. His heart did a funny lurch in his chest, even though it had barely been twenty minutes that they had been apart.  
  
He had absolutely no intention of going anywhere, of ever being without Bones again, and he could only hope and pray that Bones felt the same way about it.  
  
Eleanor squeezed Jim's arm before she got up from her seat and reached for her glass of tea on the ground.  
  
"I have no doubt about that, Jim."  
  
Well, it was probably good that someone had faith in him, because despite the ease and conviction behind his words, Jim had no clue whatsoever what exactly he had just promised Eleanor. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he had just signed his name to something without reading the fine print.  
  
"Eleanor?"  
  
She just smiled and turned towards the house as Bones pulled the rented hovercar into the driveway.  
  
"I'm sure you'll figure it out."  
  
Jim put his beer down and got up from the swing, the question what she meant by that already on his lips. But then Bones came up on the porch, Eleanor took the bag out of his hand and turned towards the house, and the moment to ask had passed. Eleanor left, and as Bones stepped up towards him Jim only too gladly leaned in for a kiss, arms sneaking under his jacket and around his back as he pressed closer.  
  
"What was that all about?", Bones asked as he leaned back against the porch railing, Jim still pressed against him. "Did Ma decide to give you the third degree?"  
  
Jim laughed. "No, we just talked."  
  
"Oh yes, I can see that. It was a complete coincidence that she sent me out for random groceries about two hours after dinner, and I come back to find you sitting on the porch sipping sweet tea. Come on Jim, I was raised amongst Southern women. Compared to how cunning they can be, that was an amateur's setup. So what did she want to talk about with you that was important enough to send me away?"  
  
Jim smiled and leaned in for a kiss.  
  
"You, of course. Apparently there's plenty of horrific stories from your childhood and wasted youth that I haven't heard yet."

Bones laughed, and though he had to know that it wasn't the whole truth, apparently decided to leave it at that. Instead, he pulled Jim closer and kissed him again. And really, it was easy to forget about everything else when he did that.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  


The days didn't so much fly by as pass altogether too quickly. Jim enjoyed every minute, even if he and Bones did nothing that could be counted in any way productive. They just…had time for each other, and for the first time in ages made use of that time. Eleanor was an added bonus to that. She went to work for five days our of the seven days that they stayed with her. Maybe it was because they weren't stuck together for twenty-four hours a day, but still had plenty of time to get to know one another once she came home in the evening that everything went as smoothly as it did. Whatever the exact reason was, with every day that passed Jim found himself feeling more comfortable in her presence.  
  
So when the last day of their stay arrived, Jim realized that a part of him didn't really want to leave. He liked Eleanor, and or some reason he didn't quite understand she seemed to like him, too. Bones clearly loved his mother and enjoyed spending time with her, and while the thought of spending the next three weeks alone with Bones was enticing, and more than a little arousing if Jim allowed himself to consider the possibilities, he had half a mind to prolong their stay for just a few days.  
  
It was a weird feeling, and completely unknown considering that whenever he visited his own mother, just a few days were enough to give him the feeling that he couldn't get out of Iowa fast enough. Of course, there was a lot more history between them, a lot more unresolved issues that weighed on them during every visit, but now that he had gotten a glimpse of how relaxing and almost reviving a family visit could be, he really didn't want to see it come to an end yet.  
  
He guessed it was this particular feeling that made people say platitudes like _all good things had to come to an end_ and actually mean them, and when the time finally came he and Bones packed their things and prepared to leave. There was a lot of bustling to and fro, searching for things that had gotten misplaced all over the house during the past couple of days, but it wasn't stressful. Their shuttle was going to leave at three pm from the Atlanta shuttleport, so even if traffic back into the city was a nightmare, they still had more than enough time to catch their flight.  
  
Jim had just retrieved the last of their things from the bathroom and was zipping the duffle bag closed when there was a knock against the half-opened door. Looking up, he found Eleanor standing in the doorway.  
  
"Do you have a minute?"  
  
Jim quickly put the bag on the floor with a nod. "Sure."  
  
He was surprised when Eleanor not only came into the room, but also closed the door behind her.  
  
"Marsha Benson just dropped by," she explained with a wink. "One of our old neighbors, she's known Len since he was a baby, and heard that he was here for a visit. She's going to keep him occupied for a little while, and there was something I wanted to talk to you about before you leave."  
  
"Erm…sure. What is it?"  
  
Other than the bed, the chair next to the dresser was the only other possibility in the room for sitting, but Eleanor made no move to sit down.  
  
"Actually, I wanted to give you something."  
  
And possibly that statement confused Jim even more than the mere fact that Eleanor deliberately sought him out while Bones was busy elsewhere.  
  
"You really don't need to."  
  
Eleanor smiled. "Okay. But I want to." She made a step forward, her hands empty as she nervously folds them in front of her body. Maybe it was the apparent nervousness in her stance and behavior that is making Jim a little more nervous about this whole encounter as well. After their conversation on the porch a few days ago, Jim had really started to feel very much at ease around Eleanor. He couldn't help but wonder if whatever was going to happen next was going to upset that balance.  
  
"Don't look so startled, Jim. It's just something that's been on my mind since we talked on the porch. I…remember when I told you that it's obvious Len loves you?"  
  
"Yes," Jim admitted, his mind racing as to where this conversation could possibly go. "Of course I do."  
  
"I meant that. I know my son, Jim. He loves you, not just a little, and it's not a feeling he's in any way insecure about. In fact, I think he loves you in a way I've only ever seen him love once before."  
  
That comparison came completely out of the blue, and it stung a little. Jim tried very hard not to think about the fact that unlike him, Bones had had that kind of relationship before, the kind that feels like it's the thing you've been waiting for all your life. He nodded, though the motion felt somewhat hollow.  
  
"Jocelyn."  
  
Eleanor's face was unreadable, and Jim realized that he had no idea what she thought of her former daughter-in-law. After the ugly divorce, he was sure that her opinion wasn't good, but there must have been a time when she felt differently. Jim realized that he had never asked Bones how Eleanor had gotten along with Jocelyn. Never mind how their first meeting went. Had Bones brought her home, too, and introduced her to his parents?  
  
 _Ma, Dad, I want you to meet Jocelyn._  
  
It felt wrong thinking about it, because once he started Jim knew he was inevitably going to end up comparing. And if there was one thing Bones had told him more than once over the course of their relationship, then it was not to compare what they had to his relationship with Jocelyn. Bones always said it wasn't the same, too different to ever compare, but sometimes Jim couldn't help it.  
  
"It's not the same, and I know that. Len would probably snap at me for even suggesting so. You're not Jocelyn, definitely not, and I wouldn't dare suggest that what my son is feeling for you is just a rekindled version of what he felt for her. But I know my son, and I know that what he's feeling is the same…intensity. The same devotion. The same firm belief that this is it."  
  
Jim didn't have to fake any of the conviction of his next words.  
  
"This time, it is."  
  
Eleanor smiled at that, and reached out to brush her hand against his arm, much like he had seen her do to Bones on the first night of their arrival here. Back then, he had been a little jealous of the causal intimacy of the touch. Right now, he felt a little calmer for it.  
  
"That's why I've been thinking about our conversation. I told you that sometimes Len isn't able to see that there's no predetermined way. Just because two things are similar, or feel similar, there's no telling if they'll really end the same way. Sometimes in life you have to take a chance even if you've been hurt before, but that's something Len has always been struggling with. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you want this as much as I think you do, you're the one who's going to have to make the next step."  
  
Jim felt as if his brain had temporarily disconnected from his body. He _knew_ what Eleanor was talking about. There was only one possibly explanation why she would push the conversation into this direction. But at the same time he couldn't imagine that this was really what Eleanor was trying to say. She couldn't possibly mean what he thought she did.  
  
"Eleanor, I…"  
  
She shushed him with a quick shake of her head and reached into her pocket.  
  
"I guess I'm making too many words where actually very few are needed."  
  
She reached for his right hand with both her own, and Jim clearly felt her press something into his palm as she engulfed his hand in between her two smaller ones.  
  
"What I'm trying to say, Jim, is that just because Len won't ask doesn't mean that he won't say yes."  
  
She gave his hand a squeeze, and when she withdrew her hands Jim saw that what she had pressed into his palm was a small box. His heart was beating wildly in his chest as his fingers moved to open it, but even though there was hardly any other explanation, he still couldn't believe it.  
  
"Eleanor…"  
  
"Just open it, Jim."  
  
He did, and for a moment he found that he couldn't breathe when he saw the two circles of gold resting side by side inside the small box. Looking up, he found Eleanor watching him with a nervous expression on her face. But if Jim was completely dumbstruck by the rings, Eleanor's next words completely pulled the floor out from under his feet.  
  
"I took David's and my wedding rings to the jeweler, the same one who made them for us back then. He melted them down and made them into a new pair."  
  
Jim shook his head and immediately tried to push the box back towards Eleanor, but she refused to take it.  
  
"No Jim, I want you to have them."  
  
"I…I can't take them, Eleanor. I can't accept this. This…after everything you told me about David and you…I can't. I know what those rings mean to you. What he means to you. I can't accept this."  
  
Eleanor smiled and wrapped her hands around his again, firmly pushing the box towards his chest. Now that he looked, he noticed the missing wedding band from her ring finger. Instead, she was wearing a silver band with a small stone set in that must be her engagement ring. She squeezed his hand tightly.  
  
"Yes, you can. David meant the world to me. He still does, even though he's gone. But that's not going to change because I take off my wedding ring. The ring is a symbol of what we shared, but I have him with me all the time." She placed one palm over her heart as her other hand squeezed Jim's just a little tighter. Her brown eyes were looking at him with an intensity Jim hadn't seen before. "I don't need to wear the ring to have him with me. But what we had is the kind of love I always hoped Len would find, too. I can't make his choices for him, or for you. Those rings aren't meant as a demand, or an ultimatum. But if the two of you ever want to take that step, I want you to have them."  
  
She squeezed his hand again, and even though Jim still thought that he couldn't accept this, that the gift was too big, too precious for him to accept, Eleanor was determined. He couldn't decline, not after those words. He could never reject her like that, or simply dismiss the depth of the emotions behind her gift as if they meant nothing. It was just…too much. She was giving him so much, and he was worried that he wasn't going to be able to live up to her expectations.  
  
The rush of emotions Jim experienced at the sight of the two rings inside the box in his palm was overwhelming, and as Eleanor took a small step towards him his feet moved on their own. Eleanor opened her arms and Jim stepped into them. He brushed his lips against her cheek and then she was pulling him closer, and all Jim could do was press his face into her shoulder and allow himself to be held.  
  
This was…Jim couldn't find any words to describe what he was feeling. Of course the thought of marrying Bones had crossed his mind a time or two, but he had always pushed it away again. Bones had been married before, and the divorce had nearly broken him. He had never signaled in any way that he was ready to give it another try. And yet there had been moments when Jim hadn't been able to push the thought away entirely.  
  
But it hadn't even been a dream, more a thought that occasionally flared up before Jim reminded himself that it was not for him, and that his relationship with Bones was good the way it was, and already far more than he had ever thought he'd have.  
  
And now Eleanor gave him those rings…  
  
It was not only the fact that it were no ordinary rings, though the mere thought about their origins threatened to choke Jim up. But even more startling was the amount of faith Eleanor put in the strength of their relationship, and in Jim's devotion to it. People who had known him for longer than she did, even some of his friends probably wouldn't put that much faith in him. Hell, Jim wasn't too sure his own mother would, if his relationship to Bones was of any real interest to her.  
  
Eleanor knew him for barely a week, but showed no hesitation to place that kind of trust into him. Jim couldn't really grasp the enormity of it all yet; he could barely believe that it had really happened. But Eleanor's arms around him were real, the embrace was warm and steady and Jim clung just a little tighter than he would have dared just a few hours ago.  
  
"Thank you," he rasped out, his face pressed against Eleanor's shoulder. "I…I don't even know what to say."  
  
Eleanor squeezed him a little tighter, then she withdrew and held him at a slight distance, her hands clasped around his upper arms. "You don't need to say anything, Jim."  
  
"Thank you," he repeated, feeling that whatever he could possibly say, it was never going to be enough. But Eleanor just smiled at him, placing a palm against his cheek for a second before she released him completely.  
  
"You're welcome, Jim." A smile spread on her face, and a mischievous spark shone in her eyes. "Besides, it's not an act of pure selflessness on my part."  
  
Jim frowned. "What does that mean?"  
  
The smile widened, wrinkling the corners of her eyes in a way that made her look years younger.  
  
"Grandchildren would be nice."  
  
Jim nearly swallowed his tongue. "What?"  
  
"No need to panic, I'm not talking about today or tomorrow, or even this year. I'm just saying that somewhere along the way, a grandkid or two would be nice."  
  
Jim had the feeling it took him a minute or two to regain coherent thought and speech.  
  
"You do realize of course that we're both men, right?"  
  
Eleanor laughed and patted his arm. "I'm sure you'll figure something out, once the time is right. For now, maybe we should worry about getting Len out of Mrs. Benson's clutches before all those lessons I taught him about respecting your elders fail."  
  
She opened the bedroom door, and Jim followed her out, carefully putting the box with the rings into the pocket of his jeans as he went. He still couldn't really believe what had happened over the past minutes, but the pressure of the small box against his thigh was a reminder that it was real. He felt like it should be weighing him down, Eleanor's words, and the implicit promise that had come with him accepting the gift of her rings, but if anything there was a sudden lightness to his steps as he followed her down the stairs.  
  
Bones was in the hallway, right near the half-open front door, and he was grasping the doorknob in a white-knuckled grip. There was a horribly fake smile on his face as he nodded in response to whatever the woman in front of the door had just said.  
  
"Of course. Thank you so much for dropping by, Mrs. Benson. I'd love to hear more, but unfortunately I have a shuttle to catch."  
  
Jim heard an elderly female voice reply something, then Bones closed the door with a forced "Goodbye, Mrs. Benson." As soon as the latch caught, he dropped his forehead against the wood with a sigh.  
  
"Damn it, Ma. I don't know why you invited the old bat in, but you owe me one for this."  
  
Eleanor laughed and raised on tiptoes to press a kiss against her son's cheek. "I'll fix the two of you something to eat before you leave, and there's plenty of pie for you to take along."  
  
Jim watched in amusement as one eyebrow rose high on Bones' forehead at his mother's offer. Bones was a hard man to bribe, but it seemed like the promise of pie did the job just fine. Well, he could relate to that. Eleanor made a mean pecan pie.  
  
"The upstairs is all packed up," he said as he stepped up to Bones and wrapped an arm around his waist. He felt as if Bones should know that something was up, that something had changed while he had been busy entertaining elderly Mrs. Benson, but Bones didn't. He just wrapped his arm around Jim's back and sighed.  
  
"I still haven't found my green shirt."  
  
Well, that wouldn't do. That shirt did something amazing to Bones' eyes, and there was no way they were going to leave it behind in Georgia.  
  
"It's gotta be down here, I checked the upstairs."  
  
Bones sighed. "Great. If it hadn't been for the nosy old coot, I'd have probably found it already. Come on, let's start looking in the living room. I think I saw another of your PADDs left lying around there, too."  
  
It was amazing how much their things had ended up spread all over the house after just a few days, especially considering that they were both used to keeping their belongings confined to a comparatively small space. But here, they had managed to spread their belongings through nearly every room of the house, and things turned up in the strangest of places.  
  
Bones' shirt eventually turned up wedged behind a sofa cushion, and Jim felt a flush rise to his cheeks as Eleanor's eyebrow rose high on her forehead at the sight of her son pulling the missing piece of clothing out from behind the cushion. Now he remembered that two days ago while Eleanor had been at work, he had really appreciated what the shirt did on Bones. A large part of that appreciation had consisted of him getting Bones out of the shirt as quickly as possible, and it was no surprise that the shirt had become lodged behind the cushion in the subsequent…activities.  
  
He was glad when Eleanor just rolled her eyes and called them for lunch instead of mentioning it any further.  
  
It was hard for Jim to say goodbye to this, and to Eleanor. Nearly as hard as watching Bones say goodbye to his mother. There was no way to tell when they'd see her again, especially once they were back aboard Enterprise. But if Jim had the impression that Eleanor held on tightly to her son in the light of that, she seemed to cling just as fiercely to him when it was his turn to say goodbye.  
  
"You take care Jim, do you hear me?"  
  
Jim smiled. "Yes ma'am."  
  
She withdrew from the embrace and smiled up at him, open and warmly. "It was good meeting you, Jim. Make sure not to wait as long until you come back again, okay?"  
  
"I promise. Thank you Eleanor. For everything."  
  
She squeezed his hand with a wink and a smile, and Jim found it incredibly hard to tear himself away and get in the car beside Bones. He wanted to spend more time with Bones, just the two of them, but still another part of him wanted to stay for a little longer. He'd have to talk to Bones once they were back in San Francisco, but maybe they could drop by for a surprise visit before Enterprise disembarked again.  
  
Bones was unusually silent as they drove down the road that would take them back to central Atlanta. As they started to pass the fields where Jim had cut the bouquet for Eleanor, he shifted in the driver's seat.  
  
"So."  
  
When nothing else was forthcoming, Jim turned to look at Bones.  
  
"So, what?"  
  
Bones shrugged, though there was nothing nonchalant about the movement. "What do you think?"  
  
"About your Mom?"  
  
Bones didn't take his eyes off the road, but Jim could see the eye roll and knew it was directed at him.  
  
"Of course. I take you to meet my Ma, of course I want to know what you think about her."  
  
In all seriousness, Jim hadn't considered that. He had been so hung up about this meeting, and about the possibility that Eleanor might not like him or think him not good enough for her son that he hadn't even contemplated the possibility that for Bones, this meeting been about both sides – what Eleanor thought about meeting Jim but also, though Jim hadn't considered it, what Jim thought about her.  
  
Jim had come to Atlanta with the expectation to be judged, not to do any kind of judgment himself. But the answer was incredibly easy. He reached out and put one hand on Bones' jeans-clad thigh as his other hand traced the outline of the small box in his pocket.  
  
"I think your Mom is awesome."  
  
Bones didn't take his eyes off the road, but the smile on his face was so beautiful that Jim had to lean over and press a kiss against his cheek.  
  
"Damn it, Jim, you're going to drive us off the road that way."  
  
Jim chuckled and leaned back into his own seat, but kept his hand firmly resting against Bones' thigh. After a moment, Bones dropped a hand from the steering wheel to cover Jim's.  
  
"Thank you for coming with me."  
  
"Thanks for taking me to meet her."  
  
And somehow, Jim was sure that this wasn't the last time they had been here. For one, he was sure that there were still more embarrassing childhood pictures and stories of Bones for him to see and hear, so there was a definite incentive to return. Besides, he had the distinct impression that he had promised Eleanor grandchildren earlier, and he had the feeling she was going to hold him to that promise.  
  
One step at a time. Jim was happy with the way things were going between Bones and him. And for now, that was more than enough.  
  
He squeezed Bones' thigh and leaned back in his seat. For now, they had three more weeks of shore leave, and Jim wasn't going to think about anything but how to make the best of that time. And feeling the muscles in Bones' leg flex under his palm as he took the car around a bend in the road, he got plenty of ideas how to achieve that.  
  
  
 _ **The End**_


End file.
